Hey all, I made a custom creature and want to check if it is CR balanced for the party I'm running. There are 5 PCs of level 6 (Barb-Zealot, Cleric-War, Warlock-Fiend, Rogue-Swash, and Bard-Lore), there is also an NPC I'm giving them that is a Cleric-Life since the party isn't keen on taking healing spells. I'm also planning on having some fodder NPCs in the fight to give them breathing room.
I gave everyone a free Feat at lvl 1 so they are a little more powerful than standard lvl 6 PCs.
I'd say the challenge rating is appropriate, maybe 1 or two too high, after a quick flip through the dmg section on making monsters. The fight might be a bit tough, but since it's a solo monster they'll probably be able to take it out, with minimal npc help.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Challenge rating is also a joke. It is really difficult to make a creature at its absolute best, but we are all humans that haven't been working with the abilities of the monster for our entire lives and will probably forget to use a reaction, or a spell, or a legendary action thus making the creature "easier". I would recommend just assigning the XP that you want the party to get from the creature (If you use xp) and adjust the challenge on the fly.
Its durability is pretty low for CR 13, and a Wisdom save of +1 combined with only two uses of legendary resistance is a pretty significant chance of getting mauled by something like fear effects, though players will not necessarily know its weaknesses, unlike what they typically know about monsters. Its damage output is very high, though, and against a party of level six PCs, with its stealth score and teleportation ability it has a pretty high chance of surprising the party, taking down a PC, and carrying away the body before the other PCs can do anything about it.
Damage and HP seem low for CR 13. I understand Apex Predator is supposed to make up for this a bit. Maybe increase it to 1/3 HP. (or 50 hp) It's possible once it reaches 36 hp, it won't be able to do anything.
Bestial Roar says "hound".
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
It's first round pounce is 67 damage with another 16 damage on a failed save vs being knocked prone, and each legendary action is 14. It doesn't have area damage so it won't be terribly effective against a group of PCs, but if used as "it sneaks up on you with its +16 stealth and on its surprise round it pounces on one PC, and then on subsequent legendary actions stuns that PC with Crushing Maw and teleports away" it could reasonably just stalk the party and kill them one at a time.
That doesn't seem like a very fun encounter, though.
It's first round pounce is 67 damage with another 16 damage on a failed save vs being knocked prone, and each legendary action is 14. It doesn't have area damage so it won't be terribly effective against a group of PCs, but if used as "it sneaks up on you with its +16 stealth and on its surprise round it pounces on one PC, and then on subsequent legendary actions stuns that PC with Crushing Maw and teleports away" it could reasonably just stalk the party and kill them one at a time.
That doesn't seem like a very fun encounter, though.
The monster can do 111 damage in a single round, while using Legendary Resistance and Fluid Movement to minimize the damage it takes. Then it can use its teleport Legendary Action to flee with whichever PC it killed.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Its durability is pretty low for CR 13, and a Wisdom save of +1 combined with only two uses of legendary resistance is a pretty significant chance of getting mauled by something like fear effects, though players will not necessarily know its weaknesses, unlike what they typically know about monsters. Its damage output is very high, though, and against a party of level six PCs, with its stealth score and teleportation ability it has a pretty high chance of surprising the party, taking down a PC, and carrying away the body before the other PCs can do anything about it.
I was a bit worried about the low mental saves but I don't want it to have no weaknesses.
It's first round pounce is 67 damage with another 16 damage on a failed save vs being knocked prone, and each legendary action is 14. It doesn't have area damage so it won't be terribly effective against a group of PCs, but if used as "it sneaks up on you with its +16 stealth and on its surprise round it pounces on one PC, and then on subsequent legendary actions stuns that PC with Crushing Maw and teleports away" it could reasonably just stalk the party and kill them one at a time.
That doesn't seem like a very fun encounter, though.
That would be a very rude way to play the creature, but I see your point on the potential for it to be very anti-fun.
It's because the creature is cheating. It has an average damage rating of 13 on 2d6.
Well, it makes up for that by doing 16 with 2d8+8 (should be 17), 19 with 4d6+7 (should be 4d6+8 and 22)
Yeah, that was a typo on the 2d6, it was originally (2d6+7), but I think most creatures that have a "charge" bonus only get damage die and not a flat +dmg on the ability.
Not sure about the other two, 2d8 average is (16/2)+8 =16? and 4d6+7 is (24/2)+7 = 19. Am I doing the average damage wrong? I roll for damage since I am playing a VTT but am curious about it.
I gave the creature a low intelligence so I am not sure it would optimize it's strategy in that way, I imagined it as more an ambush predator that seeks to dominate other creatures in it's domain. Thus the Apex Predator trait, since it gets angry at the idea it will be dethroned as the defacto top of the food chain in the area, being sure of it's dominance.
Not sure about the other two, 2d8 average is (16/2)+8 =16? and 4d6+7 is (24/2)+7 = 19. Am I doing the average damage wrong? I roll for damage since I am playing a VTT but am curious about it.
I gave the creature a low intelligence so I am not sure it would optimize it's strategy in that way, I imagined it as more an ambush predator that seeks to dominate other creatures in it's domain. Thus the Apex Predator trait, since it gets angry at the idea it will be dethroned as the defacto top of the food chain in the area, being sure of it's dominance.
Average damage is (minimum + maximum)/2 -- so 2d8 is (2 + 16)/2 or 9. Convention when listing flat damage is to round down.
Given that it is basically a magical super-tiger, I would expect it to fight like a tiger. Tigers don't berserkly attack, that's far more of a herbivore trait.
Hey all, I made a custom creature and want to check if it is CR balanced for the party I'm running. There are 5 PCs of level 6 (Barb-Zealot, Cleric-War, Warlock-Fiend, Rogue-Swash, and Bard-Lore), there is also an NPC I'm giving them that is a Cleric-Life since the party isn't keen on taking healing spells. I'm also planning on having some fodder NPCs in the fight to give them breathing room.
I gave everyone a free Feat at lvl 1 so they are a little more powerful than standard lvl 6 PCs.
Anyways, here is the creature - https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1228765-babur
I'd say the challenge rating is appropriate, maybe 1 or two too high, after a quick flip through the dmg section on making monsters. The fight might be a bit tough, but since it's a solo monster they'll probably be able to take it out, with minimal npc help.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Thanks for the input!
Challenge rating is also a joke. It is really difficult to make a creature at its absolute best, but we are all humans that haven't been working with the abilities of the monster for our entire lives and will probably forget to use a reaction, or a spell, or a legendary action thus making the creature "easier". I would recommend just assigning the XP that you want the party to get from the creature (If you use xp) and adjust the challenge on the fly.
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"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
I would make the Bestial Roar cost 2 LA instead of just 1... it is an AOE, and most LAs that are AOE seem to cost 2 or 3 actions instead of one.
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Its durability is pretty low for CR 13, and a Wisdom save of +1 combined with only two uses of legendary resistance is a pretty significant chance of getting mauled by something like fear effects, though players will not necessarily know its weaknesses, unlike what they typically know about monsters. Its damage output is very high, though, and against a party of level six PCs, with its stealth score and teleportation ability it has a pretty high chance of surprising the party, taking down a PC, and carrying away the body before the other PCs can do anything about it.
If the group faces this at the beginning of the day, with the party at full resources, I would say yeah, it is reasonable.
But if the party is down on resources, or the monster goes first in Initiative, that Life Cleric will be busy.
Damage and HP seem low for CR 13. I understand Apex Predator is supposed to make up for this a bit. Maybe increase it to 1/3 HP. (or 50 hp) It's possible once it reaches 36 hp, it won't be able to do anything.
Bestial Roar says "hound".
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
It's first round pounce is 67 damage with another 16 damage on a failed save vs being knocked prone, and each legendary action is 14. It doesn't have area damage so it won't be terribly effective against a group of PCs, but if used as "it sneaks up on you with its +16 stealth and on its surprise round it pounces on one PC, and then on subsequent legendary actions stuns that PC with Crushing Maw and teleports away" it could reasonably just stalk the party and kill them one at a time.
That doesn't seem like a very fun encounter, though.
The monster can do 111 damage in a single round, while using Legendary Resistance and Fluid Movement to minimize the damage it takes. Then it can use its teleport Legendary Action to flee with whichever PC it killed.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I think this is a good idea, thanks for the input.
I was a bit worried about the low mental saves but I don't want it to have no weaknesses.
That would be a very rude way to play the creature, but I see your point on the potential for it to be very anti-fun.
It's because the creature is cheating. It has an average damage rating of 13 on 2d6.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
It's playing the monster to its strengths.
Well, it makes up for that by doing 16 with 2d8+8 (should be 17), 19 with 4d6+7 (should be 4d6+8 and 22)
Yeah, that was a typo on the 2d6, it was originally (2d6+7), but I think most creatures that have a "charge" bonus only get damage die and not a flat +dmg on the ability.
Not sure about the other two, 2d8 average is (16/2)+8 =16? and 4d6+7 is (24/2)+7 = 19. Am I doing the average damage wrong? I roll for damage since I am playing a VTT but am curious about it.
I gave the creature a low intelligence so I am not sure it would optimize it's strategy in that way, I imagined it as more an ambush predator that seeks to dominate other creatures in it's domain. Thus the Apex Predator trait, since it gets angry at the idea it will be dethroned as the defacto top of the food chain in the area, being sure of it's dominance.
Average damage is (minimum + maximum)/2 -- so 2d8 is (2 + 16)/2 or 9. Convention when listing flat damage is to round down.
Given that it is basically a magical super-tiger, I would expect it to fight like a tiger. Tigers don't berserkly attack, that's far more of a herbivore trait.